Blogger Victor Solano reports on a news article in French found in Radio Suisse Romande [fr]and one in Spanish on Spain's elpais.com [es] saying that the US army gave 20 million dollars to the FARC for the liberation of the 15 hostages .

In micro blogging website Twitter, Jerome Sutter [es] suggests that this economic exchange might be the cause of the few official reactions Sarkozy has had.

Also from Twitter, Gerente [es] quotes a famous radio anchor, Julito, from a popular radio show in W radio station, who reported that polemic Colombian writer Fernando Vallejo had said that “the liberation of the hostages was manipulative, roguish and horrible.”… turns out to be that what Vallejo really said [es] was that Ingrid Betancourt herself is those things,and the way that the media is concentrating only on her and not on all the other hundreds of hostages is scandalous.

Marsares from equinoXio [es] online magazine writes that the operation has been so perfect, people are now doubting it. He doesn't share this perception so then he proceeds to establish counterpoint arguments for their criticisms. However, he does make an allowance, admitting that the fact that the “Trojan horse” [en] strategy was used, by pretending to be a humanitarian mission and could make it harder for other hostages to receive any kind of humanitarian aid in the future.

Journalist and blogger Anastasia Moloney writes that some families fear that guerrillas will strike back at remaining hostages, killing them or hurting their families, and that now that Ingrid is freed along with the three North American citizens, that international pressure to free the remaining hostages will disappear.

Thumbnail photo by Redking

Zizou links to several of Ftouh's articles, posted on various blog sites, including a recent piece on IdentiteJuive.com where he explains his views on Israel and terrorism:

Je suis un homme libre, qui depuis le monde arabe, admire le peuple juif qui a invoqué en premier un Dieu unique et qui est aujourd’hui contesté sur sa propre terre. Dans mon enfance, je ne savais pas exactement ce qu’était un juif. Je n’en avais jamais rencontré. Tout ce que je savais, c’était que les juifs étaient « des soldats terrifiants » qui voulaient tuer les enfants arabes palestiniens et détruire les maisons sur leur tête.

…J’ai réalisé à quel point la jeunesse du monde arabe continue à être mal informée aujourd’hui … Ça me fait une grande peine de voir la propagande, la désinformation, la haine et l’antisémitisme exacerbé, que j’ai connu dans à mon enfance se disséminer aujourd’hui à la nouvelle génération .

Le terrorisme n’est pas un accident, il fait partie intégrante de la doctrine officielle et de la culture du djihad, de la marche pour la domination mondiale qui s’est enclenchée voici une décennie dans le monde musulman… les haineux maîtrisent à la perfection l’art de jouer avec les faiblesses de l’Occident et utilisent à cette fin des mots tels que l’islamo-phobie.

Another where he explains the true nature of Palestine:

Elle n’existe tout simplement pas ! C’est un concept. Un concept ? Oui, prenez un couteau, retirez-en la lame et le manche, il vous reste le concept. La Palestine n?a pas d'Histoire autre que l'Histoire judéo-chrétienne, ni de peuple présent depuis plus d'un siècle autre que le peuple juif. C’est un concept.

And on rencontrejudaïquesfm, a piece on the history of Jews in Tunisia explaining how with the Westernization (or more specifically, the Francization), “the relationship of domination between Arabs and Jews could become equal for the first time” after “centuries of domination by Muslims” since Jews more readily adopted French culture and modes of dress.

Zizou's readers comment:

Profilo writes:

C'est totalement subjectif trop même. dire que les juifs étaient des sujets de second rang avant le protoctorat c'est vraiment trop mentir et trop bafouer l'histoire alors qu'ils vivaient ensemble sans aucun problème comme l'atteste tous les vrais historiens.

Soufiene writes:

En regardant ces versions de faits. Souheil ne peut etre qu'un avocat du diable. Il cherchait le coup mediatique comme-quoi. C'est son interveiw dans le journal Afaq qui a fait de lui un hero.

chiraz:

en fait, l'interview a été publiée par le magazine Hakaeq (version arabe de réalités). Bon, maitre Ftouh est libre d'avoir ses propres opinions mais ce qui m'a étonné, c'est lorsque le journaliste lui a posé une question sur les enfants palestiniens victimes de la sauvagerie militaire israelienne, maitre Ftouh a répondu que le Hamas en est responsable et qu'il avait une pensée pour les enfants de Sdirot!

Zizou's take?  “Long live free speech!”

The causes of the mass stranding are still under investigation as the local population and the ministry were trying to rescue a few surviving whales.

A few hypotheses are being discussed by experts, ranging from fungal or viral infections to the use of low-frequency sonar by the military or off-shore oil-foraging companies.

Fanamby is a Malagasy association that specializes in conservation and development by focusing their effort on developing private initiatives and new technologies.

Harinjaka, besides his work at Fanamby, is also the co-founder of Foko-madagascar and an author at the collaborative news site “The observers by France 24“; he answered a few questions about this sad event (interview was originally conducted in French):

Q: When and how did you learn about the mass stranding ?

Harinjaka: Fanamby was contacted by a tour operator who was visiting the area with tourists on June, 3rd. A few of them took photos of the stranded whales to sensitize other agencies about the urgency of the situation. The mangroves where it occurred are located about 600 km away from the capital city. Accessibility was not really the main problem, technical know-how and manpower were what was needed the most to rescue the surviving whales.

Q: What are the most plausible explanations so far ?

H: It's all hypothetical at the moment but beside an unknown disease, the one fact that was mentioned by most people in the region was that an Exxon-Mobile ship left the port of Antsohihy on June, 3rd. On June 4th, 40 whales were seen stranded and I saw many more the day after. Again, this is all speculative at this point but a national newspaper confirmed the presence of the ship.

Q: You mentioned that the reactions of the locals were bizarre at first:

H: Yes, when the local population saw that outsiders were taking photos of the disaster, they were quite unhappy and they demanded that outsiders take the whales away. They probably figured that outsiders were the reason the whales were stranded there in the first place.
The other odd story was that when experts tried to identify the species, they could not find what species they belong to inside the catalog of known Malagasy marine species. They were later identified as Peponocephala electra or electra dolphins, [Melon-headed whales].

Q: What lessons can be learned from this catastrophe ?

H: The Malagasy population have a special bond with Dolphins. We don't hunt or eat dolphins because our traditions tell stories of dolphins saving fishermen from drowning at seas. I would like to make a plea here: we should consider deploying more resources to enable faster responses to natural disaster such as this one, but also other threats to our biodiversity.

( All photos credits to Harinjaka)

( Note: *Melon-headed whales are also known as Peponocephala electra or electra dolphin. ** accounts from other witnesses are also integrated in the interview)

Cedric Kalonji is a reporter for Radio Okapi and author of what is arguably Congo's most popular blog.

But in addition to his radio work and blogging, Kalonji is also a prolific photographer, and I spent the last few days poking around his photostream on Flickr.

Kalonji uses photosets to tell stories, for example, how rapid erosion in the Binza Ozone neighborhood of Kinshasa claims more and more homes with each heavy rain:

MONUC soldiers on strike:

An interview with Senegalese musician, Ismael Lo:

And the sad story of two men arrested in Kinshasa, one for stealing a length of wire, the other for purchasing it:

What I really liked about these photographs is that whereas international media images of Congo tend to depict disaster or the strange and exotic, Kalonji's photographs the ordinary, everyday of life in Africa the outside world does not often see.

So I decided to ask Kalonji about his photographs and he graciously agreed to answer my questions, which I have translated here from French.

When and why did you decide to create a blog?

I created my blog in September 2005. At the beginning, it was for sharing my photos, my day-to-day life on the internet. I noticed that there were ore and more people who were interested in my photos and so I posted more, adding a little text. Very quickly, there were hundreds of visitors, mostly Congolese i the Diaspora. That is where my motivation to continue with this blog, which now receives an average of 1000 visits a day, came from.

When did you start taking photos? What do you think a image can communicate that text cannot?

I started taking my first photos with a digital camera my mother received as a gift in 2002. I think that for reading and writing, one must first be educated, but with images it's different. You may not know how to write and yet you can take photos that can say as much as a written article. You may not know how to read but you can understand a situation exposed by an image.

What do you think of the image of Congo abroad? Do you think this image reflects the reality?

Congo is perceived as a country at war, in chaos, where everything is destroyed, where nothing works. This image is true in a sense because after 32 years of dictatorship under Mobutu and over ten years of war and 5 million dead, it is true to say that things are not going well.

At the same time, there is something that we often forget to note, which is that the Congolese are still smiling, welcoming and passionate for life, despite all of the traumas they have suffered. There is still human warmth, and I think that is a great wealth.

Why do you like to take photos of daily life, of ordinary moments?

Because I said to myself that there are certain things that people living elsewhere in the world cannot imagine, things that I live every day. My first motivation is to share these ordinary moments, to let people put themselves in the skin of a Congolese person, of someone in Kinshasa, by looking at these photos.

What role do citizen media play in your profession? (Or is there a role to play? The majority of your readers are abroad, in part due to the lack of internet access in Congo.) What role might they play in the future?

Citizen media allow us to go beyond borders and to build bridges with very meagre means that would be impossible with traditional media. In my case, the advantage of a blog is that it allows me to express myself in a completely independent way and to be read by readers from the four corners of the world. So I have the possibility to share my life and to connect with readers from different countries with different visions and cultures. I think that for countries like Congo and Africa in general, blogs are an especially important means of communication.

To share this passion, I've trained young Congolese on a volunteer basis to allow them to understand how blogs and new media work. The youth I have trained have already created two sites, Ndule2Kin.com and rdcbel. I would love to extend these trainings to other parts of my country as well as the whole of the African continent.

Are most of the photos you take for your reporting or are they also a hobby?

For me, photography is a hobby. I am almost never apart from my camera and I take photos almost everyday. I have thousands and it is always a pleasure to look at all of them, because they remind me of precise moments.

* * *

Commenting on the post, a resident of Bukavu in the 50s agrees that it was at least one of the most beautiful towns in Congo, and says the photo above gives a strong impression of what it was like back then.

Don and Marsha of Congo Chatter have a detailed post on ‘how things are sold' in Kinshasa. Whether you're looking for a European used car, a Coke bottle full of diesel, a walking stick, a football, a 10 cent bag of drinking water, a hard-boiled egg, a bunk-bed or a full sofa suite, it's all right there on the side of the road:

Wanna buy a used car? There aren't more than 4 or 5 car dealerships in Kinshasa, and not one of these has a used car department of any consequence. Most used cars are sold off of “used car lots” along the side of the road. Here's a used car dealership alongside Mulumba Blvd. — each morning about 50 or 60 cars appear alongside the road — there are occasional lookers and buyers, and then at night all the cars get driven somewhere to be stored overnight. Almost all the used cars here come from Europe, and still have their identifying European country sticker on them — “B” for Belgium; “F” for France; “CH” for Switzerland; “D” for Denmark, etc. Someone buys them in Europe and ships them down here. The process of licensing, registering, reporting sales to the government, sales tax — no clue what happens. But the inventory always changes and cars are being sold from under the trees.

Cédric's [Fr] neighbour's handyman has invented the most cost-effective automatic closing gate you're likely to find anywhere.

Finally, Le Congo C'est Là [Fr] has a handy guide to identifying ‘un vrai Z' in the Diaspora (Z for Zaireois, that is). It seems you're a real Z if, among other things:

• you always dress in flashy colours
• you keep your D&G label to show its authenticity
• you always fly with excess baggage but get angry when asked to pay for it…
• …and you always take some Pondu (Cassava leaves) with you, even though it's sold everywhere these days

The Malagasy blogosphere had mixed reactions to this donation, despite unanimously recognizing the sadness of a catastrophe of this magnitude, citing that more than 70% of the population still lives below the poverty line, there is a global food crisis and some regions in Madagascar are still trying to recover from the destruction caused by the hurricane season.

Tomavana, who also translates for GV Malagasy, posted on the blog, Malagasy Miray:

“Car c’est de façon quotidienne que la majorité de la population malgache affronte les difficultés de la cherté de la vie, augmentation du prix de l’huile alimentaire, de celui du carburant, des coupures “chroniques” de courants et autre cyclone de façon annuel. Or quel contraste entre le manque de fonds, excuse immanquablement invoquées par le gouvernement face à l’absence d’efficacité des réponses apportées à tous ces problèmes nationaux et cette solidarité internationale. A ce que je sache, ce don ne provient ni de l’argent de Ranjeva ni de celui du président Ra8, mais bien des caisses de l’état, donc du contribuable ?”

Tomavana’s post induced a few reactions in the comment section:
Manalina agrees with Tomavana (fr)

“Si sans cœur tu es alors sans cœur je suis … on sait tous ce qu’il en est”

The Malagasy government is working hard to strengthen the ties with China. In recent news, President Ravalomanana traveled to Shanghai in May and is on record for wanting to “expand collaboration with China”. The Malagasy government also was also prompt to support China’s handling of the riots in Lhasa in March and state that they would participate in the Beijing Olympics whether a boycott is in place or not.

Tattum believes that charity ought to start at home and Maintikely says that her grandmother is still waiting for the roof and the walls of her home to be replaced after the latest cyclone. Maintykely also wrote in her personal blog that the president was guilty of a blatant conflict of interest when he protected the price of oil from going up with state subsidies when he owns the company that provides most of Malagasy cooking oil.

Dotmg, on the other hand, does not understand all the negative reactions to the act of solidarity by the Malagasy government (mg):

“Rehefa misy andrarezina lavo ve ao amin’ny tanànanareo dia tsy mandeha mamangy ianareo, na mandeha mamangy ihany fa tsy mitondra solondranombary tsy masaka, sa manome ihany fa fanahy iniana atao kely satria izy aza manankarena noho ianao, ka tsy ho hitan’ny vazan’ainan’ny hareny izay kely hataonao anaty valopy?”

Vola thinks that the shocking part is the fact that 100,000 USD is really not enough when one considers the fact that 70,000 people died and many more are still not accounted for. If it was meant as symbolic gesture of solidarity, she asked, then wouldn’t a symbolic amount be more appropriate?

Many Malagasy bloggers have been actively raising fund for the earthquake victims in China and Cyclone victims in Myanmar through Facebook.

Another topic of international solidarity that got the Malagasy blogosphere talking was the call for help from Diana, a high school student in Mahajanga, who wants to help a baby born with a congenital malformation and his family get the proper medical treatment. The Malagasy Diaspora in Italy, France, Canada and South-Africa came together to raise funds for the operation and transport of the baby and his caregiver to the capital city, Antananarivo.